A Veterans Day Reading List

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This weekend marks a celebration of veterans around the world: from Armistice Day in Europe, to Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom, and Veterans Day here in the United States.

In this reading list, we are looking at the more complicated aspects of what it means to be a veteran—from well-known issues such as crippling PTSD to less-researched problems such as forced enrollment. We also explore the reality of dissenting veterans, as well as the ethics surrounding soldiers who volunteer. And if that’s not enough for you, we have also selected some of our most popular archival pieces on war and security—check out the whole collection here.

“In 1987, a survey by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs found that 35 percent of diagnosed PTSD patients who fought in Korea had attempted suicide, four times the rate of those from World War II.”

“Any story of war is a story of elites preying on the weak, the gullible, the marginal, the poor. I do not know of a single member of my graduating prep school class who went into the military. You could not say this about the nearby public high school class that graduated the same year.”

“Like the American wars in Vietnam and Iraq, Israeli wars are preceded by a widespread sense of necessity and followed by damning public criticism. What explains this cycling of perspectives, the ritual of affirmation and rejection that endlessly loops?”

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